Aggression Q&As

Ed, I recently tried to break up a dog fight between my 4 year old golden retriever and 5 year old yellow lab (both neutered males). The fight occurred in the middle of our large yard. I was alone but still tried to break up the fight by grabbing the back legs of the dog that was wining and lifting and pulling back. As soon as that dog would let go, the other dog would attack. This went back and forth several times. Each time I was able to get one dog to let go, the other would attack. Th...

Ed, I recently tried to break up a dog fight between my 4 year old golden retriever and 5 year old yellow lab (both neutered males). The fight occurred in the middle of our large yard. I was alone but still tried to breack up the fight by grabbing the back legs of the dog that was wining and lifting and pulling back. As soon as that dog would let go, the other dog would attack. This went back and forth several times. Each time I was able to get one dog to let go, the other would attack. T...

Hi, My female terrier dog is 6 years old. She was attacked on a local dog beach by a big dog that just ran in from nowhere as she was playing in the sea. The attack resulted in 3 stitches to her neck. Now my dog is aggressive with other dogs. If they approach her she tries to bite and warn them away. This is a problem as obviously many dogs use that beach and there is always a dog that approaches her. My dog does not initiate an attack, she just warns them off when they come too near. How ...

Hi, Very heartbroken and torn on what to do. We got a Catahoula Leopard Dog when she was 6 weeks old. About 2 years ago she started to look at you scary when you gave her a treat and sat next to her on the couch. I think if I touched it she would bite me. Then she went after my Min Pin's treat and hurt her badly. She also goes crazy if a dog passes our house her hair goes up and when I try to make her stop she will get aggressive with me. But the worst thing about this is she could be so l...

Hi, I'm not actually having a problem. Just wanted to know if my 2 1/2 year old German Shepherd is just being a German Shepherd or has he taken being protective to a whole new level. I take him to the dog park frequently where we have miles and miles of off leash paths through the woods to walk through. We meet lots of dogs and for some reason, if there is a problem anywhere, my dog has to get involved and sort it out peacefully. If a little dog looks like he's being picked on, Dax is the...

I had a question regarding a dog with small acts of aggression. She has had two incidents where she has shown acts of aggression on another dog. She is a Pitbull mix adopted from a rescue. The first incident, her normal trainer said she was correcting the other dog because it was biting the other dogs in the dog park. She did not hurt the other dog, she just would not let go. The second incident was the most concerning. She was at the dog park playing like normal until another owner w...

My pitt bull is 6 years old, we got him right before my daughter was born, he was raised along side her. He has been an amazing family dog, never ever has shown signs of aggression towards us in any way. But for everyone else, he hates everyone, he wants to kill. and I mean KILL. We can't even take him for walks anymore because now he wants to kill everyone/dog we see and also cars??.... Its painful walking this terror on a lead. What do you do with a red zoned dog? We can't have him around a...

Hello, I'm really hoping you can help me. I am a cat lover and have a 6 month old kitten/cat, we are about to move in with my partner who is a dog lover, he has 2 french pointers, mother and daughter. The mother is highly aggressive toward smaller animals, she is a rescued dog who has never fulfilled her hunting nature (we guess because of whatever was done to her when she was small, he got her when she was just 1 year old, she is now 4). She has killed and eaten/torn apart 3 cats tha...

I have noticed similar questions on your website, but still a bit different and not exactly direct answers with what to do, so I figured I would ask you myself...The other day my roommate was having a pool party and she told her friend to come who brought her aggressive pit bull over because my roommate (unknown to me) told her that my pit bull (Cami) is great with other dogs (which is true) and that she has socialized some other shy/aggressive dogs before (true, but not at MY house). Long st...

Hello, I'm looking for advice regarding my 75 year old mom and her 13 year old miniature schnauzer mix dog. Her dog, since a pup, has been a biter, snipper, growler, barker, etc. not to mention overly aggressive. He has to date bitten my mom several times resulting in trips to the urgent care or Dr. She is slower to recover from wounds as the most recent was a day ago. My response has been to put the dog down because I don't see how he can be trained after all these years from bad bree...

Hello, I'm hoping you can give me some advice about my 18 month old male nurtured border collie Sherlock. Every evening we go up the park and play with a group of dogs they all get on well. In the past two weeks, we have had some new puppies up the park and Sherlock has gone for them and pinned them down and growled and bit their cheek. He was making a lot of noise but didn't seem to hurt the poor puppy or draw blood. I 'm worried that he will scare the poor puppies. He'd be playing fine ...

My dog gets agressive when people play fight or wrestle. She bears teeth and it seems like she is going to bite someone involved but has not. When my kids were playing and she did this, I corrected her and I think I fixed the problem because I haven't seen her do it again. But, I wonder if I did the right thing. I wonder if now someone actually is a threat, if she would intervene. What is the right thing to do when the dog can't distinguish play fighting from real?'

Hello, I just rescued a 5 year old Lhasa and he was defiantly dissocialized in his last home with health issues. I have two boys who are 6 and 10?who are completely non aggressive and our environment is very tranquil. First 2 weeks were great but Chico has decided that he is a little higher in the pecking order and very loyal to me. Even though we have established a good routine if my youngest walks in the room and is just standing there he will run up teeth glaring and growling, etc... It...

Hi Ed and Cindy, I just recently purchased how to deal with dominant and aggressive dogs, dominant dog collar, leather leashes, etc. I had asked Cindy this question a while back when my female german shepherd was still only 9 months old. I bought the ecollar and DVD back then along with other Michael Ellis DVDs. She is doing very well with obedience without any high level distractions. She will obey on and off leash with people around only but cannot do that when there are any other animal...

Hello, We have a male Golden Retriever who is turning one year old next week.? He was neutered at 7 months of age and we have had him since he was 8 weeks old. With the help of your videos on Establishing a Pack Structure and Dealing with Dominant dogs we have for the most part an obedient dog who stays and comes on command. Walks well with us and responds to verbal correction when he wants to wander toward other dogs or to sniff around. Unfortunately he has tendency to get very agg...

Hi there, We have adopted a beautiful dog, who likes to bite other people. In order to protect them and himself (from being destroyed) while we are trying to alter his behavior we are going to try a muzzle. I'm not sure of the which one to get and ask for your assistance. Also, before proceeding any further, do you post to Australia? Muzzle size: nose length from top (just below eyes) to end is 4", and circum (fairly snug) is 11". We have tried a plastic muzzle which was not the righ...

Hi, First I would like to thank you in advance if you take the time to read this! My boyfriend has two three month old american pitbulls. They are brother and sister. They always want attention at the same time and you can never be with one but you need to be with both. Even if you are with one, as soon as the other one sees it will come over. The problem though is that the female dog, is extremely dominant over her brother. To the point where she will always being the fight, take his f...

My mother in law owns a beagle/lab/chow mix who is about 2 years old. Recently, she got another dog from the local shelter and was told by the shelter that she would have to neuter her chow mix in order to keep her new dog. The chow mix was neutered, but became increasingly violent towards humans and the new dog, where he had not been before. He DID calm down about 3 weeks after the operation. Two days ago, a friend of ours walked into the house with me, and the chow mix bit him! It didn't...

How to train the human to break up a dog fight? I normally don't have more than 2 or 3 dogs. I've rescued and adopted mainly German Shepherds, but ventured off into the Doberman Pinschers for 7 years now. Never had problems until my alpha female attacked my 18 month old female while playing fetch. My mistake after the fact. All calmed down. They got along since, until I brought in a 3 month old puppy and after 4 days, they got into again, and like normal, I put my hands to their heads to b...

We have two dogs that have had issues for a long time. I understand the dominance issues from your article but at this point training won't cure. Our 4lb poodle female was killed by our 15lb peekapoo female. What do I now do about the dog that is living and what kind of future issues do I need to be worried about? It was a distinct relationship that these two dogs had but the peekapoo has nipped at people. I understand the dog that died may very well have caused the problem but do I nee...